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Kandidatarbete i medieteknik, Institutionen för teknik och estetik, vårtermin 2018
Exploring how multiple stories,
connectivity, and mystique can
give the illusion of a larger digital
world that is rich in history and
open for interpretations
Författare:
Oscar Florén Arela & Lukas Thorburn
Handledare:
Minnamari Helmisaari
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Abstract
Svenska
Detta kandidatarbete kommer att utforska möjligheter till hur spelskapare ska kunna göra för att expandera, utveckla, och förstora sina digitala världar för att ge spelarna en illusion av att det finns mer till den digitala världen än endast huvudkaraktären och den del av världen där spelets historia utspelar sig. Vi vill utforska detta genom rhizomatiska kopplingar, ubuntu filosofi, multipla historier, och mystik. Vi hoppas på att dessa nyckelord ska erhålla nyckeln till att skapa mer intressanta världar för videospel där världen verkar vid och spännande, samt tronar på en rik och händelsefull historia likt hur vi ser den verkliga fysiska världen.
Vi lever som en karaktär, ofta i en liten del av världen men vi vet att det finns mer där ute än endast våra egna liv och de platser där detta liv utspelar sig.
Nyckelord: ̵̵rhizomatiska kopplingar, ubuntu filosofi, multipla historier, mystik.
English
This bachelor thesis will explore the possibilities in which game creators will be able to expand and enlarge their digital world and give the players the illusion that there is more to it than just the realm of the playable main character. This will be done through the usage of rhizomatic connections, ubuntu philosophy, multiple stories, and mystique. We hope that these keywords will hold the key to making a more interesting world for video games in which the world will seem wide, exiting and with a rich history similar to how the real world appears.
We live life as one character but we know that there is more to the world than just ourselves and the environment we live our daily lives in.
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Table of contents
Abstract………...2 Background………..……...4 Collaborative writing……….7 Research question………...7 Aim…….………..8Previous and Current Research……..………..9
Methods………..………...….21
Design Process………..………..24
Conclusions………...………....………..………...31
Discussion………..……….33
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Background
In this chapter we will introduce our idea and explore where the idea originates from. The idea for our project originates from a decision to take a deeper look at a few different video games that we as gamers were currently playing or had memories of from our past. We then came to the discovery that many of them would possess a common feature. This feature was the hidden stories taking shape in the background, scenery, and environment that were untold to us as players experiencing the games. Whether it would be stories that were part of the background or scenery and in some examples even gameplay.
We firstly looked at the popular pc and console game Minecraft (Mojang, 2011). In the game there are some monsters in the form of human zombies and skeletons. These monsters appear all over the digital world of the game when night falls. This awakened a question; who are they? A skeleton or a zombie is the remains of a deceased human being coming back to life, shouldn’t they all have a backstory? The game however does not provide one keeping the lore of Minecraft a secret for its players to ponder upon.
Another interesting example with an unknown and hidden piece of story can be found in Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, 2007). In a level quite far inte the game called Shiverburn Galaxy, there is a part of the background that contains some shadowy figures looking down at the player, see Figure 1. Who may these paranormal looking silhouettes belong to, are they ghosts? Aliens? or just some strange looking trees?
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No official answer has been given and same as with Minecraft, this leaves the players curious and wondering.
Then there is also the example of the pc game Portal(Valve Corporation, 2007). The game has many stories that are told directly to the player and some to be found through exploration or by other means. In the game the player controls a character named Cell, a woman who wakes up imprisoned in a huge facility. When the game starts the player will quickly come to realise that there is no way for Cell to to go except for the path leading her down to a journey where they are to solve different puzzles by the orders of an artificial intelligence named GLaDOS.
During these levels the player will most likely notice that there are some special or odd parts of the stage that doesn’t have anything to do with the solution of the puzzles. These parts are secret areas which through environmental elements such as graffiti and sometimes even through audiotorial means tell the player mysterious and hidden stories.
This type of story sharing is very refreshing for all those who take an interest in this kind of thing but at the same time there are still many stories untold about the world of portal as in almost every video game.
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Figure 2. The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali(1931).
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Fascinated by this we came to the conclusion that we wanted to try implementing this into the world of a digital game. This because we believed that the usage of hidden stories and hints to an existing past could enrich the games digital world and make it seem larger, this might give the players the illusion that there exists other realms than the one where the game takes place, an illusion that there is more to the world than just the story of the main character.
Collaborative writing
A short description of how we worked on the writing and research process of this thesis. This bachelor thesis is the result of collaboration between two bachelor students at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlshamn. We’ve shared this labour united under the marxist thought that everything shall be divided equally. We started our research by searching for scientific articles relating to our idea and research question. We would then share our findings verbally with each other and write about our own findings separately drawing comparisons and the like to our research question. We would continue with this process writing parts separately while upholding verbal communication and later work together to connect the pieces.
Research question
English
How might it be possible to enlarge a digital world through the use of multiple stories, connections, and mystique?
Svenska
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Aim
In this chapter we will describe our project and research, and go into detail with our aim and ambitions with it.
With this bachelor thesis we were looking to explore the possibilities of mutation and enlargement that can be caused on the world of a digital game through the usage of multiple stories told through details and objects in the environment as well as hidden meanings or strange wording containing mystery in the dialogues of the games characters and other spoken or written forms of storytelling present within the virtual world such as signs, graffiti, etcetera, with everlasting possibilities. Through this research we will try to achieve this by creating a game of our own.
In real life the world and everything within it has a story. Even things that seem insignificant have a story and a reason for being.
We wanted to take this concept and bring it into the digital world of a videogame.
This is a feature of the real world that is often overlooked when people create and design a digital world of their own.
In our bachelor thesis we will also explore the terminology that exists or resembles this idea of telling multiple stories as well as take a look into earlier uses of similar concept.
Why would interpreting this idea into a game be useful? We believe that through this concept game designers will be able to take advantage of the players own humanistic explorative nature to lead or encourage the individual to seek out clues and hints to the secrets and makeup of the digital game world through his or her own journey and endeavor. By utilizing multiple stories to tell the history of the world as well as the players own curiosity to explore; we’re aspiring to give each individual player a unique interpretation of the reality of the digital game world and its hidden history and rhizomatic connections to past, present and future events and by this create room for discussion and sharing of ideas, theories, interpretations and information in the community of players.
We believe that this mystique which could potentially shape up around the game and it’s community will be able to generate enough curiosity in players to lead them back into the game in search of more missed information thus increasing replayability as well as keep the players interested enough to uphold a community around the game which then has the potential to spread interest in the game even further to new potential players.
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Previous and Current Research
A good way to start of this chapter with would be a quote from ̵̵The new narrative:
Applying narratology to the shaping of futures outputs ̵by ̵Paul Graham Raven̵ and ̵Shirin
Elahi̵ (2015).
“If a story is a sequence of events in time and space, then the story-world (hereafter referred to as “world”) is the contextual time-and-space in which that sequence of events occurs. As such, in most circumstances the world is much larger and more complex than the story, but elements of and events in this wider world may well influence and shape the plot, which makes the distinction unavoidably fuzzy.”.(p.52)
Paul Graham Raven and Shirin Elahi here propose a claim that while the story and the world are two separate things; as the world in which the story takes place influences it the border between the two becomes fuzzy. This is interesting to our idea of creating an illusion of a big world outside the games narrative. This fuzziness or gradient of the two concepts is something we would very much like to explore as we believe that the
blurring of the line between a story narrative and the entire world the story takes place in is something we want to achieve within our project. So to explore this phenomenon, the creation of an illusion of a bigger world beyond a main narrative, we will in this chapter talk about our findings from our research in a wide variety of topics, this includes everything from Philosophy such as ubuntu and rhizomatic philosophy, to methods of writing mystery fiction and storytelling methods in video games and explore how this research might become useful for our project.
Rhizomatic philosophy
From earlier studies at Blekinge technical university in Karlshamn have we gained vast knowledge of the philosophy of the rhizome which was invented/discovered by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychiatrist and political activist Felix Guattari, both french; in their book ̵A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, 2004̵.
“Puppet strings, as a rhizome or multiplicity, are tied not to the supposed will of an artist or puppeteer but to a multiplicity of nerve fibers, which form another puppet in
other dimensions connected to the first”(p.8)
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. 2004
Rhizomatic philosophy is the idea of connectivity between all that exists in the universe. Looking at the above quotation we can see that Deleuze and Guattari draw parallels between puppets and puppeteers where the rhizome is the strings that make the puppet move
connected to the puppeteer.
These rhizomatic strings can however if one looks closely be found between literally
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can as mentioned be drawn between everything as we’re all connected parts that make up the vast and phenomenous universe in which we reside.
Ubuntu
Associate Professor Christian B.N. Grade from Aarhus University in Denmark researched different interpretations of the term ubuntu among people in south africa of african descent in his text; ̵What is Ubuntu,? Different Interpretations among South Africans of African
Descent̵, published in the ̵South African Journal of Philosophy̵ in 2013. Christian discovered the possibility to divide the interpretation people had of ubuntu into two groups. One that sees ubuntu as the moral of a person and one that sees ubuntu as a philosophical phenomenon.
“I have found that amongst SAADs, it is possible to make an analytical distinction between two clusters of answers to the question ‘What is ubuntu?’. Even though there are internal variations across the answers that are part of the same cluster, they have at least one feature in common: the answers of the first cluster all define ubuntu as a moral quality of a person, while the answers of the second cluster all define ubuntu as a phenomenon (for instance a philosophy, an ethic, African humanism, or a
worldview) according to which persons are interconnected.”(p.487)
Christian B.N. Grade̵, 2012
For this bachelor thesis we’ll however only look at the second group that sees ubuntu as a phenomenon as it is the option which bears most relevance to our research.
Ubuntu is a word and philosophy that has emerged from the south of the african continent. This word describes the interconnectedness among humans and how we all work together to form a society and its people.
“You are what you are because of other people. We don’t live in isolation, we live in a community. That sense of community is what makes you who you are”(p.493)
Christian B.N. Grade̵, 2012
People are who other people shaped them to be, their family raising them, their friends, their enemies, etcetera, all helped shape the person they are today. This is the philosophy of ubuntu.
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look into the relation between ubuntu and it’s possible correlations with video game experience through storytelling that can lead to different interpretations by the players. One colossal difference to declare is that ubuntu and our idea of building a digital worlds history through the telling of multiple stories is that ubuntu, although it can sometimes be interpreted differently, solely talks about humans and how we socially form each other.
“it usually becomes clear that ubuntu is understood as a phenomenon according to which persons are interconnected.”(p.492)
Christian B.N. Grade̵, 2012
Because of this we’d find it necessary to take the idea of ubuntu and expand it beyond just the human level to instead accommodate the entire world. After all, isn’t it more than just the interaction with humans that help shape who we are?
Our idea of multiple stories building up the world is similar to ubuntu as it also tells of many stories that together rhizomatically help build up new stories and the world as it is today. Our idea is that there is a story behind everyone and everything that has helped form what is today and what is to be. In the philosophy of ubuntu every person is the result of the shared
endeavor of people before and with him or her that has helped make this person who he or she is today and who he or she will be in the future.
However, because of the human restrictions of ubuntu it was not exactly what we were looking for. Even then, reading about this fascinating philosophy has been very enriching and it’s definitely possible to draw parallels between it and our concept as well as to rhizomatic philosophy.
Storytelling methods in video games
In the world of digital gaming, present today in the year of 2018 after the gregorian calendar, there exists a vast amount of different types of storytelling methods that videogame creator utilize for their product. Some are more popular and common within the industry while some varieties could be considered more daring and experimental. But even though they all possess differences every single one of them also have something in common, they touch on the subject of storytelling, a subject which we need to devote time and effort into, seeing as it was a possible mean to find something of significance and relevance for the story
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The String of pearl method
The string of pearl method is a method which Jesse Schell, an american game designer, author and professor in the practice of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, tells us about in his book ̵The art of game design : a book of lenses(2008)̵ that it is the most dominant method being used today. The method works by having a story which is non-interactive and linear; meaning a game in which the story progresses from point A to B to C and so forth in a straight fashion. The name of the method can be explained by the pearls representing the areas in which one can play and interact and with the string part of the name representing the story.
One way of explaining this methods popularity could be fact that it’s basically a simple and quite uncomplicated one to use and apply to a game. There is a lot of room for variation when one uses this method however, but it is essentially a very straightforward method. An
example of a game using a variation of this method is the pc game Celeste(Matt Makes Games, 2018) by developers Matt Thorson and Noel Berry. The game is played by
controlling a character and advancing from level to level with pieces of non interactive story getting told every now and then. This would fall in line with a typical implementation of the string of pearl method if it wasn't for the fact that the player at some parts actually do have some control over the story at some parts. One of those special instances is the part where the player is able to choose what dialogue the player controlled character should respond with. Answering differently here doesn't have any significant effect on the game though. Other than that the game also has multiple endings which can be attained by collecting various amounts of strawberries throughout the game. These different variations of ending are not very significant either but due to these small non-linear story elements one couldn't truly say that this game is true and golden example of a game with linear storytelling, but rather a close variant.
The combination explosion
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Then there is the variant of the method which has many different ending points. This is also a popular version but it also comes with its own complications. For example one might not know if the ending just experienced was the “real,” “true” or “bad” ending. Which will make the player wonder what one would have to do differently to change the outcome. Most of the time one can use common sense to understand what needs to be done but in some cases it can be a little more tricky.
There also exists the whole part about having to play the whole game again just to experience the ending which one most desires, and that can be a big turnoff of to many people.
Thankfully though one can most of the time make it easier for themselves by loading a save file and playing from that point instead of having to play through the whole game again from start to finish.
“The Story Machine”
Jesse, (2008, p.265) then continues to tell us about yet another method which he calls “The Story Machine”. Basically it can be explained as a method to give a game near infinite possible stories which the player can generate just from playing. Some of these stories are stories which are developer created and left in for the player to find, but the purpose of this method is for the player to create and generate their own story through whichever way they want, limited only by their imagination.
Games like these can contain big or small amounts of developer created stories but as said, the goal is for the player to roam free and by doing create their own stories. There are many types of game genres that utilize this type of story generation. There is “sandbox,”
free-roaming,” and “open world,” games which all can and is used interchangeably to define a game rich in story generation.
There are some arguments today about these different names though, some would say that one would fit better to some type of game and some would say different. But that’s not an argument for us to settle. On a different note, there are alot of good examples of games within these genres. One such example is Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment, ̵2013)̵. The player starts of by choosing which character they want to play and then the game starts. Now that the game has started the player is free to go and do their own thing and by that create their own story.
There are survival elements to this game though which means that there are some rules to follow to be able to continue their story.
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free to interact with the game world in a way of their choosing. These interactions could be everything from fishing, bug catching to fossil hunting.
To sum it up; we have a linear, a nonlinear and a story generating method. These are all interesting methods which are good in their own unique ways. Any of these could be used to create a game rich in story which means that any of these methods are a good pick if one were to create such a game. One thing that’s also interesting about these methods is that the creator is not limited to choosing just one when creating a game. Multiple method usage is something that happens quite a lot in the videogame industry. Why limit yourself as a creator to just one method when it’s possible to use elements from multiple ones at the same time?
Mystery fiction
In our quest for a fitting term in relevance for our game project we stumbled into the territories of mystery fiction and detective fiction.
Brought into existence by graduate student Chiu-Yen Wu and associate professor Chi-Shiou Lin from National Taiwan University in Taipei is a scientific journal exploring mystery fiction and detective fiction which takes a deeper look into what it is that in this form of literature appeals to its audience. It did this by reaching out to readers of mystery fiction and explore what these participants would expect from or consider good literature in the mystery fiction genre. This scientific study goes by the name ̵The pleasures of reading mystery fiction and mystery readers’ book selection behavior ̵and was published in the ̵Journal of
Educational Media & Library Sciences (ᩍ⫱㈨ᩱ⯅ᅯ᭩㤋Ꮵ) ̵in 2016.
Wu and Lin divides the appeal of mystery fiction into seven pleasures perceived by readers which are best described in their own words:
“This study identified seven types of reading pleasures perceived when reading mystery. Many participants were highly engaged in solving "puzzles" in mystery fiction. Whenever they made the right guess, they obtained a great ̵pleasure of achievement̵̵. When the myth was intelligently constructed so that they failed at making the right guess, they could still perceive a great ̵pleasure of amazement̵ as long as the mystery solving process was convincing.
Most of the participants considered mystery reading as ̵fulfilling their curiosity̵; it allows the readers to gaze at crimes or the dark sides of the society that are usually beyond one's daily life. By the end of the stories, the perpetrator often receives some sort of penalty or sanction, which gives the participants a ̵sense of redemption and justice̵. Meanwhile, the mystery fiction is rich in topics and themes so that many participants considered reading mystery as a ̵knowledge enrichment̵ activity. Furthermore, participants may develop ̵a sense of empathy and connection̵ as they read a story and develop deep̵ reflections on social and human values̵.”(p.383)
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When creating an artefact in the form of a digital game, movie, film, or any other media that tells a story it’s important to look at what the consumers of the story genre want.
We chose to take a deeper explorative look into the world of mystery fiction as both this genre and our idea of telling a story through multiple dimension seemed to share a common theme; mystique.
Enriched with this knowledge we believed the usage of these seven pleasures would come in handy in our further research.
Critical making & thinking
Whilst researching different topics we found this article ̵Critical making: Exploring the use, of making as a generative tool(2016)̵̵ where a professor named Chad Schwartz
talks about the usage of some a couple of methods called critical making and critical thinking.
Critical making is a fairly new method which basically is a method in which one would gather knowledge and information during the creation process of something.
“Critical making is positioned at the intersection of the“scholarly”work of thinking
and the material work of making; it serves as a catalyst for design, embedded in a process of craft, material, and exploration.”
Then we have critical thinking which is an old method of thinking that dates far back to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates teachings. Chad Schwartz explains this method quite well.
“Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully concep- tualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”(p.231)
Both of these methods are methods one could use to help improve general problem solving and design processes which is something that has piqued our interest.
Rhizomatic narrative
In the real world there is history. Everything that exists is a bearer of a story. Even the seemingly most insignificant thing has a reason for being and a reason to remain or not to remain.
Rhizomatic narrative is about telling stories on multiple levels such as story that has
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example of such an enhancement can be given from philosopher̵ ̵Adrián bene’s scientific paper about the rhizomatic narrative of the tv series TREME ̵Bene, A. (2015). Rhizomatic narrative and intermediality in treme.̵ Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 10̵(1), 61-71. doi:10.1515/ausfm-2015-0026
“Moreover, music transforms the narrative structure of the series from a multilinear story to a rhizomatic narrative in an intermedial way. In this rhizomatic structure, music represents New Orleans as a connecting space for every character and their life-stories.”(p.62)
He tells us that one is able to enhance their characters, environments and narrative simply by using music because it can further the relations of everything and give rise to more
connectivity.
With such applications one could give life to the things created while at the same time avoiding creating hollow and uninteresting things for a narrative and story.
Comparing rhizomatic narrative with our other research
Rhizomatic narrative is in a way similar ubuntu, “I am because we are”. However, unlike ubuntu; rhizomatic narrative is not restricted to humans and humanities influences on itself but rather takes on the world as a whole. Everything has a history that and is a piece of the puzzle that has built up the world as it appears in the present.
However, all these stories does not have to be told in full from start to end like a traditional story. Just like in the real world there are mysteries and unknown pasts, rhizomatic narrative is the same and shall contain mystique and a sense of mystery that brings the player curiosity and interest. The history of the real world goes back to eternity and rhizomatic narrative should convey the same sense of eternity to its audience.
If we take a look back at the seven pleasures of reading mystery fiction proposed by
Chiu-Yen Wu and Chi-Shiou Lin we found that some of these pleasures could be applicable in rhizomatic narrative as well, such as the pleasures of achievement and amazement from being able to guess solutions and later be proven either wrong or false as well as knowledge enrichment, the ability to explore and enrich their knowledge of the world.
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Now if one were to look at the storytelling methods which we mentioned previously and compare them to our concept, what knowledge would we be able to attain from it? The thing with rhizomatic narrative is that everything has a story, whether it’s being conveyed in a straightforward manner or not. Because the fact that something was created and implemented in a world with a context, a story for it will be generated automatically. And if one would think about all the methods of storytelling that exist today and all of their
variations, one would quickly come to realise that rhizomatic narrative is present in all of them. As a result it doesn't really matter which type of game or method one would look at because the fact is that present in all of them are multiple stories waiting to be found by the player.
In some methods though it’s possible to argue that the stories could have more of a purpose than merely just being something of existence.
In the string of pearl method for example, the stories available doesn't really matter for the outcome of the game story because the story is linear and usually ends at one point. But In the combination explosion which is more of a nonlinear method there are choices available to the player. The rhizomatic stories existing in such a game is much more of a relevant thing there and that because one’s choice making can be influenced from the information gathered from all the pieces of story available. Then we have the story machine which with help of the story present will enable the player to get inspired which in turn will lead to the path of story generation.
An example of how one could lead the player down the path of story generation is to utilize as many elements of the game as possible. Take music for example, with it one could make it sound and feel a certain way, and with the right context in the game it can sway the listeners emotions and in turn thought process which will give rise to interpretative thinking. Then we have the game environment, a very powerful tool for story generation. Everything within it will tell the player a certain story; even if the message is not clear it will get told and the player will build the world based on their understandings.
The presence of rhizomatic narrative in games and media
Under the title Background we discussed interesting details in video games that helped lead us to our idea of telling multiple stories through different objects in order to make up a digital world with a rich history.
Some games which we have mentioned previously were Minecraft by Mojang, Super Mario Galaxy by Nintendo, and Portal by Valve Corporation.
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enemies. These enemies have as of yet not been giving a backstory to why they exist or who they might have been at the time when they were alive.
Rhizomatic̵ narrative is the art of containing story in as many parts, objects, and aspects as possible. In a strange but fascinating way, the lack of story in minecraft could actually be defined as ̵rhizomatic̵ narrative. Although it doesn’t give a complete story to the players it still conveys the presence of a history of the world before the player joined in.
A story doesn’t have to be told from start to end it only has to convey its presence and allow the player to see the marks it has had on the world.
In Super Mario Galaxy we took a look at the shadowy figures in the background of
Shiverburn Galaxy. Similar to the lack of story in minecraft this background does not give any story of the traditional kind but it shows the existence of a story happening somewhere else that has happened to cross path with the main character Mario in his adventurous journey thus making this simple background an excellent example of a simple yet effective
implementation of ̵rhizomatic̵ narrative.
Then in portal we talked about there being multiple stories being told to the player with some stories not getting told. This is a good example of a game which makes good use of the stories present in the game by having some stories untold and some stories told. This creates a good balance of possible information which can be acquired because the player probably wouldn’t want every single minuscule thing in the game tell their story for that that would just be a huge overflow of unnecessary information.
Adaptivity and user experience
Both for this research and for our game in development we came to a conclusion that it would be interesting to look at other similar projects and their research in order to get an idea of what we were to expect from the future.
As with our project we want to achieve a form of illusion resulting in the players of our product receiving a view of a wide and life full world through the stories projected in the environment and through objects and task within the game’s digital world; we came to take a look at another project called the reading glove.
Through a scientific paper by the name of ̵A case study of intended versus actual experience of adaptivity in a tangible storytelling system ̵̵(2014), written by Karen Tanenbaum, Marek Hatala, Joshua Tanenbaum, Ron Wakkary, and Alissa Antle. To make it easier on ourselves and our readers we will refer this as simply the reading glove project in order to not have to repeat the long name nor the multiple authors of the research the countless times this will be referenced.
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uncover a bit of a story, through intelligent storytelling in which the story adapts to the order objects are picked up these stories should in the end be possible to piece together into a full story. The reading glove project aims to look at the combination of adaptive systems and tangible systems. As our game however does not possess any tangible parts it is for this research only in our interest to study the adaptive part of their research.
What is meant by an adaptive system within the context of storytelling in a game is the way in which the story adapts depending on in what order elements within the game are triggered. With an aim to create a digital game that gives its players the illusion of a much larger world adaptive systems are worth to take into consideration as giving the game a much to linear path can be damaging for the illusion. It might be better to instead allow the player to go around and explore. However, with the element of exploration added to the game it is no longer possible to make the player follow a strict intended path and it is likely that the player will interact with the environment and objects in the digital world in a way not intended by its creators. This is where knowledge of how an adaptive system comes into play and becomes useful for our project.
The paper of the reading glove project conducts three experiments with participating people who gets to experience the system. First two minor and after that one mayor final test with more participants. We won’t go into full detail in how these tests were conducted as this will only be repeating what the authors of the reading glove project wrote in their own research. If you’re interested in reading more about this I’d suggest reading chapter 5 of ̵A case study of intended versus actual experience of adaptivity in a tangible storytelling system ̵̵(2014). Anyhow, rather than looking at the tests themselves we’ll jump directly to an overview of what there is to learn from the reading glove project that can be useful for our own study. In the reading glove game, they tested two ways of telling multiple stories through single objects. First by having a randomly selected story appear when an item is picked up. This however would lead to some complications in which it was hard for the players to know which objects had multiple stories or not since the objects would sometime play the same dialogue twice.
“None of the seven participants heard all of the fragments, because they did not know which objects only had one lexia, and which just happened to play the same clip multiple times rather than alternating the multiple clips available.”.(p190)
A case study of intended versus actual experience of adaptivity in a tangible storytelling system (2014)
After this they would change the output of story from random to altering in which the results were better. However, some problems still persisted.
“changes solved the problem of encountering the same clip over and over, but had other effects. Although there had been some concern that ordering the lexia chronologically would make the system too transparent, this did not appear to be the case. Participants found it challenging to remember which lexia were associated with each object and to assemble them mentally into the correct order. This was likely due to the fact that there were several additional fragments to remember and track, and each object had two lexia that were continually alternated, rather than one lexia repeating continuously to form a strong association.”.(p191)
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understood from the paper however that the screen wasn’t very visible to the participants and sometimes overlooked or confusing. This might be a result of it being a later edition and not implemented from the beginning in which it could have been programmed in as a necessity to complete the game. When it comes to leading players in the direction you want I’d say from my own mind that I believe it would be better to implement hints into the story itself and if the story like in the reading glove game doesn’t necessarily have a certain direction in which the game makers would want to lead the players, maybe the usage of hints and
recommendations should be omitted.
One thing that we can take with us is the participants reactions and behavior towards the end game. Some would continue their search to get as much out of the story as possible to make sure no bits were missed.
“Some people became more experimental in their interactions at the end, with participant 26 describing his final explorations as “spastic”, intended to break his previous interaction patterns. His “reward” for these explorations was the discovery of a piece of overlooked information from the very beginning of the
story.“.(p.194)
A case study of intended versus actual experience of adaptivity in a tangible storytelling system (2014) But there were also some frustration among the users when a story never gets a perfect and clear ending.
“The lack of a distinct end point was frustrating or confusing to some people, who wanted a clearer indication that they were finished.”.(p.194)
A case study of intended versus actual experience of adaptivity in a tangible storytelling system (2014)
We would argue however that this does not necessary have to be a bad thing but rather a good thing as it creates a vacuum free to be filled by own theories and imagination which in the end can make the game more appealing. This is only speculation on our part however and should be looked into deeper in a different study as we’ve done no testing of this claim. As for our game project we believe the way going forward to be one with usage of hints in the story bits itself to lead the player down a designated path.
Summary of Previous and Current Research
As you can see, we have found quite a lot of different and interesting things from our
research ventures. We have high hopes that the knowledge gained and to be gained from all of these will help bring valuable information for our project as they are to be used and
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Methods
The different methods which we will utilize during this research will be one’s that we have stumbled upon in our earlier research chapter, methods which we in general think would be a good fit or just ones that caught our interest. Will will also be using some experimental design methods in this chapter which one might not count as a legitimate method usage, but we find it probable or rather we hope that using them as such will enrich our project and give valuable information for our research. In this chapter we will take a look into these various methods. Kanban
For our work method we have been using kanban a work method to help improve efficiency and other aspects of the management and workflow on a product. We use this method because we find it simple and efficient to use but also because it’s a method which we have quite a bit of experience with. This method works by having a visual to do list containing 3 slots “to do”, “doing” and “done” and having stickers placed within these with tasks written on them. This so everyone can be up to date on what each user currently is doing.
We had a choice of using a web based version of this method but due to the fact that we had a whiteboard available to us we found ourself using that instead because of increased visibility. This method has been really useful to us because with it we have been able to visually see all the current and some future tasks for the game which has improved the general management of the development of different parts of the game.
Critical Thinking
The oldest documentation of this method dates far back into the ancient Greek with the philosopher Socrates being the one behind this method. But we got inspired to use this method by reading professor Chad Schwartz article ̵Critical making: Exploring the use, of making as a generative tool(2016)
During the project we have exercised this method of critically thinking to various degrees. Because every choice that we made whether it be design related or not had been thought through and analyzed just enough so that we could make sure it fit the context of use. As a result, nothing that exists within our creation was added by chance. Everything that has been created was done by two minds critically thinking about all the implications of making a choice.
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Critical Making
Compared to critical thinking, critical making is a much newer method but at the same time they both exercice being critical in thinking. What’s special with this method though is that it focuses more on learning new information just from the work process.
Ubuntu philosophy as a design method
Going back to some of the more philosophical topics from our earlier research we’ll start of by taking a look back at ubuntu; a philosophy tackling the connectivity of humans and the process in which human actions and presence shape each individual in a society. We found this philosophy as a subject of high importance for character development of human or humanlike characters in the storyline of the game.
The reason for why we found this important is because while the characters have their own personality and personal traits it’s necessary to not only see these characters as individuals seemingly originating in separate universes, but as part of communities of many other characters who have all participated in various ways to create these individuals. In the concept of character development throughout the occuring story it shall also be taken to account that ubuntu is consistent of continuously occurring phenomena that never stops influencing the characters. The characters needed therefore be given rhizomatic wiring to other characters and the environment that would help them grow throughout the story itself. Rhizomatic philosophy as a design method
Bearing similarity to ubuntu is rhizomatic philosophy which describes the concept in which all of the universe is connected as a huge webb with invisible threads. While ubuntu talks about the connectivity among human individuals, rhizomatic philosophy talks about the connectivity among all that is, from physical objects and creatures to thoughts and
occurrences. Aligned with the rhizomatic philosophy we also have the rhizomatic narrative. It can be described as a narrative that has story elements or components with meaningful
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One aspect of using this narrative that we were specifically interested in is the way it makes it possible of further enrich one's narrative by giving it more depth and layers of purposeful information. Because by utilizing this method, it’s now possible fit more information into a space which previously had none.
Mystery fiction as a design method
Moving on from storytelling and into the area of mystique and its influence on the game. We’ll have a look back at the seven pleasures of mystery reading described by Chiu-Yen Wu and Chi-Shiou Lin in their scientific journal ̵The pleasures of reading mystery fiction and mystery readers’ book selection behavior.
In the world of mystery fiction readers are looking for the pleasure of achievement they get from solving the mystery, or the amazement they receive when they think they had
discovered the truth only to be proven false in a convincing way. Readers want to feel empathy and connection to the characters in the fiction as well as fulfill their curiosity of life different from their own. Implementation of all or some of these elements into a digital game built upon the wiring of rhizomatic narrative might result in the same demographic as that of mystery fiction gaining interest in the game and in fulfilling their curiosity by exploring the digital world for themselves in order to detect and learn everything they can about the fictional world. Having players who wants to come back for more in order to gain more knowledge as well as a player community in which the players can share and discuss their findings with each other.
String of pearl
This is a design method which Jesse Schell talks about in his book ̵The art of game design : a book of lenses(2008)̵ we have been using as way to structure how our game progresses. It basically works by having ones game strictly follow a linear path of progress meaning having a game that goes from point A to B and then C and so forth in a straightforward manner. Story machine
While we have been using the String of pearl method, we have also been using another
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Rhizomatic narrative
In conjunction with the story machine and string of pearl method we have also been using this philosopher̵ ̵Adrián bene’s narrative method from his text ̵Bene, A. (2015). Rhizomatic narrative and intermediality in treme. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies,
10(1), 61-71. doi:10.1515/ausfm-2015-0026 (P.62)̵ ̵ as a way to further the amount of story
available for the player to find which in turn could enhance the general connectivity of all the parts of the game. This is a method with surprisingly similar elements to the story machine due to them both being about the possibilities of story creation. We have been using this method throughout the game in many different ways on many different levels and layers.
Summary of Methods
These are the methods that we have chosen to use for our project . We found that they all fit our work processes but at the same time we recognize that some of these methods are not ones which one would typically use for design as they are more of a philosophical way of thinking; but at the same time we have seen and hopefully realized the potential in them to be used in such a way that we have. Meaning we aim to infuse the essence of the various
philosophical ways of thinking into our various design processes as a way to further the probability of increasing the general sense of experiencing a larger digital world.
Design process
In this chapter we will explore how our methods and research have helped us bring our idea into reality as well as the benefits and limitations of it. We will also go into detail more about our workflow as well as introduce our product made alongside with the utilization of this research.
Introduction
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The game tells the story of a little girl lost in the forest of russia in the dark who encounters a spirit or god of the forest called a Leshy which is a character borrowed from old slavic mythology.
This chapter will describe how we’ve been using our acquired knowledge from our past research into the development process of this game. We have chosen to do this by dividing parts of the game into separate smaller subtitles, Characters, Environment, Game Mechanics, and Storytelling Methods. Under each title we will describe the methods used to achieve that specific part of the conformation/product.
Workflow
We worked using the kanban method in order to keep track of what we had to do and get all our work into perspective. We also took heavy use of critical making as a method within our work, learning new things as we work on them as well as discovering new ideas, some that could add sometimes dramatic change to our game project. An example of such would be the idea in the early stages of the project where we decided to give the main character the ability to jump, turning what was firstly meant to be a puzzle game into a 3d platformer. Similarly have we also experimented a lot with things such as battle mechanics, going from 2d danmakufu or bullet hell type minigame to fighting in the 3d environment.
Characters
As mentioned earlier we found ubuntu to be of severe importance when one designs human or humanlike characters for a story. When designing and planning out our characters for Games of Leshy we took ubuntu together with rhizomatic philosophy ̵Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2004). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia̵ into deep
consideration. The main character is intelligent and possesses knowledge of her world that is unknown to the player who just entered the story. This trait is deliberately chosen in order to give the players a sense of a past or in other words give the players the illusion that there is a past history for both the character and the world which has lead to the main characters possession of her traits, personality and wisdom. To see what the characters look like, see Figure 3.
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past or rhizomatic connections between the character and the environment as well as history that has shaped the present in the fictional world.
Other than ubuntu and rhizomatic philosophy we have also taken into consideration the pleasures of mystery reading by Chiu-Yen Wu and Chi-Shiou Lin ̵Wu, C., & Lin, C. (2016). The pleasures of reading mystery fiction and mystery readers’ book selection behavior̵. Out of these pleasures we have selected two that we see fit for the development of characters, namely; a sense of empathy and connection, and reflections on social and human values. As the players leads the main character through puzzles, courses, and dialogue, he or she is able to make decisions for the main character and in this way they should feel a sense of
connection to the character as well as empathy though they might see themselves as part of the same side as the main character or even picture themselves in the roll. We have not left the antagonist out of this either. The character possesses a distant past of confusion and many memories that eventually leads up to her attacking the main character in the end becoming the final boss or obstacle for the player before the game ends. Through this it was in our thoughts that we wanted the players to feel empathy for the protagonist as well as be able to draw parallels to emotions occuring in the real life.
As a conclusion it should be noted that other elements from the seven pleasures of mystery reading can be found occurring in the character development as well, such as; fulfillment of curiosity and knowledge enrichment when the player gets to experience a different world through the eyes of its characters.
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Environment
We were looking to tell stories through the environment that could help us achieve an illusion that the world is much bigger and richer than what the player can actually see.
In the environment we would do this through details in the scenery or by things in the background.̵ ̵Taking a part of the game as an example. The main character goes through a very old warfield with rusted and overgrown anti aircraft guns and non harmful spirits in the background watching her as she walks through the area. This is one of the more obvious hints towards the history of the world. Other parts of the environment that tell a story can be things such as graffiti and various types of ruins, see Figure 5 and 6. As the game progresses the environment will change. The world will break up and become more dreamlike, see Figure 4. We’ll through this be able to experience more ubuntu relations and historic connections to the characters in the game as we will get hints of the character’s past.
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Figure 4. Games of Leshy, Dreamlike part near the end of the game.
Figure 5. Games of Leshy, Protagonist and Antagonist meets outside an abandoned building.
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Game Mechanics
When creating the mechanics for the game we took a lot of inspiration from the seven pleasures of mystery reading. We wanted the player to feel like they are with the main character experiencing the story playing out with her. In order to achieve this it is as
mentioned under the title Characters, important that the player feels a sense of connection and empathy to the character. With game mechanics however, other pleasures come into play such as fulfillment of curiosity, pleasure of amazement and achievement, as well as the sense of redemption and justice. As the player explores the world, he or she will feel the fulfillment of curiosity as they find new clues leading up to the completion of the full story. The player will feel the pleasure of achievement after solving puzzles that lead to new areas with more new puzzles to solve and thing to explore. After completing difficult tasks through
platforming, puzzle solving and battling with enemies the player will feel the sense of redemption and justice. Such is the way in which we’ve attempted to implement these
elements of mystery fiction into our slightly different yet on closer inspection similar form of media.
Storytelling Methods
For our game we choose to have a mix of some different kinds of storytelling methods. For example the main storyline is linear much like the string of pearl method(Schell, 2008) which we mentioned earlier, but at the same time we also use the story machine method quite a lot. The use of the story machine was quite important for us to use because with it we were now able to create and give hints of a much deeper story which we could convey to the player in many different ways. Having the ability to hint to some hidden knowledge or piece of
information is something that we believe is essential for our research because with that ability we can make the gameworld and everything in it becomes more rhizomatically connected and intertwined which would lead to story or just pure information open to interpretation which in turn would expand the amount of information the player is able to get just from playing. Because having more information available that also can be interpreted in different ways is something that we believed could help us with making a game world that would seem larger than it actually is.
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narrative and intermediality in treme. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies̵. Because just like how the tv series that he talks about is linear but at the same time follows a type of rhizomatic structure the same can be said for our game. It’s linear, it has a starting point and an ending point and also a space in between. These parts all has some elements that are certain with some more mayor than others but at the same time there exist almost an infinite amount of possible ways to interpret many of the things that exist within the game world. In reality our narrative is actually quite limited or small but when the player would try to view, gather or understand the information of the possible pasts, presents and futures of one or all of its the game’s components, one will see that there is actually more information available than one could possibly comprehend.
Audio
When making the music for the game we choose to have calm music during most of the time and more intense music during the battle sequences. But the music was not only to be general calm and intenseness. For the plan was to imbue the music with certain emotions as to better fit the context for which they are used in and by doing so creating connectivity much how like they do in a rhizomatic narrative The same goes for the sound effects, they were also thought through critically so they could be used to elevate the situations and the contexts in which they are used.
How This Answers Our Research Question
How might it be possible to enlarge a digital world through the use of multiple stories,
connections, and mystique?̵ ̵This is the question we seek to solve by the research done for this bachelor thesis.
Let us take a look at the rhizomatic philosophy, the rhizomatic system in which everything is connected. Although we do not allow the players to go down each rhizomatic wire in our product, showing the very tip of it is enough to give the player the impression that the entire wire is there, just out of frame. Looking at ubuntu and the pleasure of fulfilling curiosity in which a player gets to experience the life of a different person in a different environment and situation. Adding a backstory or history to this character will help in drawing new rhizomatic lines as it hints towards ubuntu connections between the character and other unknown
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Conclusions
In this chapter we will present the results of our project and look into how well we achieved our aim through the usage of methods and wisdom gained from our research. Our objective with this bachelor thesis was to look into the possibilities of mutation and creation of illusions making the digital world seem larger that can occur when using multiple stories in order to convey a history and existing world outside of the main narrative. This was to be done using both the environment as well as dialogue between characters. In order to accomplish this feat we researched ways to tell stories such as Jesse Schell’s storytelling methods ̵Schell, Jesse. (2008). The art of game design : a book of lenses̵ as well as took advantage of ̵Wu and Lin’s seven pleasures of reading mystery fiction ̵Wu, C., & Lin, C. (2016). The pleasures of reading mystery fiction and mystery readers’ book selection
behavior̵. Apart from this we also took a more philosophical approach by researching
philosophies of connectivity such as ubuntu which describes connectivity among humans and how our actions as a community works in forming the actions of the next generation, as well as the rhizomatic philosophy ̵Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2004). A thousand plateaus:
Capitalism and schizophrenia̵ which describes the invisible wiring connecting all that is, was
and will be in the universe.
Combining these two branches it was our goal to use their knowledge to form connecting multiple stories that create mystery and interest in our own games digital world.
We wanted to create an unknown side of the game that would intrigue and excite players. Something behind the curtains that would have the players come back for more and to theorize and share their theories with others in a community which capitalistically speaking would in the end help spreading interest in our final product and lead to more people purchasing our game.
It is however not enough to simply speak selfishly about boosting our own sales. We believe taking this to use can benefit many, not just the sellers but the customers as well. This is because we believe that the quality of the product will increase if the world that the product encompasses break boundaries and shows players that there is more to it than what his or her eyes can perceive at a first glance.
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When designing our game we took much of what we’ve discussed into consideration. We wanted stories hidden in the scenery and dialogue, and basically anywhere we could think of. These stories would hint at a past of the world as well as a world before the events of the game happened and a world waiting and living beyond that of our game’s story.
Our game features a little kid lost in the woods encountering a god or powerful spirit called a Leshy. This being is taken from slavic folklore and is a huge and often lucrative spirit that protects the woodlands. Through the use of multiple stories and their connectivity we hope that we’ve been able to give these characters more depth. The child lost in the woods have a place that she comes from and that she wants to return to. Similar, the leshy has a history of encounters with past beings that have shaped her actions. In this we can see the philosophy of ubuntu. In the forest lies an abandoned house with broken windows and dry paint falling of its walls, this house hints at a past before the child in the woods. Characters that once inhabited the old house hold connections to the leshy.
To our game there is much more than just the main characters however. As an example: in the game there exists an old battlefield, now overtaken by a swamp, with old craters and rusty overgrown war weapons half sunken down into the ground that are slowly being swallowed by nature. In the area before this the player will meet an old tree possessed by an ancient spirit angry at humanity for the destruction caused on the lands in those historic times. In this forest there are many spirits, these spirits are old and not harmful to the main
character, as well as in a way insignificant to the games main story. However these spirits are there to hint at people and objects of a long gone past in the history of the digital world in which the game takes place.
Of course, stating that these elements doesn’t have connections to the main characters is untrue. Their existence has shaped the world to what it is in the event of the game and that world has in turn shaped the characters that grew up within it. Such is the way of
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Discussion
In the end of the deadline for this bachelor thesis our game remains unfinished and it was not feasible to ask for user input and feedback for the game. Because of this we can only make guesses and assumptions. Based on our own educated belief we think that we have somewhat succeeded in creating an interesting game with multiple connecting stories utilizing the methods and ideas we have explored and learned from our research. However. There exists many things we believe we could have done better had we put more energy and time into smaller details. What could have been done differently to improve our results is what we will discuss in this final chapter of our thesis.
As a small team with limited time we didn’t find it feasible to implement thought into every detail of the game as we previously stated we’d hope to achieve. It’s simply a lot to try to put thought into every little flower that grows in the forest, or every little rock, plant or creature in the background. ̵However, ̵in ̵Deleuze and Guattari’s̵ rhizomatic philosophy it is possible to draw connections between everything existing in the universe and in a way the things we have created with less thought will generate a story even if it never was a conscious choice. And in a way letting the world generate itself is not necessary a bad thing as this can give more depth into a world than its creator ever could give it through his or her conscious thought.
“The completeness of this world is never revealed (perhaps not even to the author), much as the completeness of reality is never revealed to any one inhabitant thereof; there’s simply too much of it to fit in the finite
experiential frame of a single novel (or lifetime). But in both cases – whether a story takes place the “real” world or an imagined one – the expectations of those worlds necessarily surround and inform the story.”.̵(p.52) Paul Graham Raven and Shirin Elahi (2015)
Looking back at the various things we researched for this project there are many things we could have done differently.To achieve more ubuntu we could have brought more characters into the games story and explored our main characters relation with these characters in their past. ̵As Christian B.N. Grade describes it, we are not isolated people, we are part of
communities that makes us who we are. By not introducing more characters of the
community that the main character in our game adheres from we’re missing out on expanding the ubuntu experience of our game even if hints are present of such a community in
nonhuman objects.̵ A stronger ubuntu connection between many characters would likely have made it easier for the audience of the game to understand these characters better, where they come from, and why they act like they do.
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leshy character and her past. We had however no characters planned from the main character’s past. Adding this would have created a much better understanding for the
character in the terms of ubuntu but at the same time it can be considered an intelligent choice to leave such details out.
If we take a look at something like the sense of empathy and connection from Wu and Lins seven pleasures of reading mystery fiction we can draw a conclusion that at least readers of mystery fiction like when they can feel a connection or perhaps imagine themselves as the fictional character. Because of this, going against ubuntu and leaving the character’s past open for interpretation might be the wisest choice as this will allow players to interpret their own thought and story into the character which will in turn allow the players to better connect to the character. The better the players then are able to connect to the main character the more empathy they will feel for her.
Since we have already begun discussing the seven pleasures of mystery reading we will continue down this path. The seven pleasures of mystery fiction was as the name states it created by Wu and Lin after researching what readers of mystery fiction and detective stories believed would make a good book in their scientific journal; ̵The pleasures of reading
mystery fiction and mystery readers’ book selection behavior ̵(2016). Mystery fiction or
detective fiction and a digital game is not exactly the same but it is possible to draw parallels between them. Our game is filled with mysteries and puzzle solving but it’s not exactly a detective story. It was therefore not necessary to implement every aspect of these seven pleasures.
One such example is redemption and justice. This is what the reader would feel when the bad guy got caught at the end of the book. Our game doesn’t really have a bad guy though. There is no criminal that a detective has to find and catch. We have the leshy character as a
protagonist but she will also be a helpful friend of the main character in some parts of the game and possesses a difficult past. We wanted the audience to feel empathy and connections to the character, not justice and redemption from defeating her.
We believe however that the rest of the seven pleasures have been implemented in one way or another. The player should feel the pleasure of achievement from solving puzzles or the pleasure of amazement when the story takes strange turns. They will fulfill their curiosity as they experience a new exciting world as the main character as well as connection and empathy for the characters as well as experience social and human values. As the players explore the world they’ll enrich their knowledge as they discover the hidden truths about our fictional world.
There is arguably not much we should have done different to implement these seven
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upon the input of mystery readers. Perhaps a similar audience that would like a mystery filled game.
Going back to philosophy. This time ̵Deleuze and Guattari’s̵ rhizomatic philosophy from their book; ̵A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia ̵(2004)̵.
Rhizomatic philosophy is a very wide idea. It describes the wires that connect everything that is, was and will ever be in our universe. It is impossible to create something that does not have any connections to something else, therefore we can not argue that we don’t have rhizomatic connections present in our game. The reason we took a look into this philosophy is because we wanted the many stories of our game to connect and work as something that creates the digital world of our game. If our game is a mushroom peeking up from the ground, there would be stories represented by other mushrooms. This is however just the surface, if one look into the soil underneath the patch of mushrooms one can see that they’re actually only one organism connected with small white strings.
Rhizomatic philosophy is very wide and isn’t easy to talk about when it comes to usage. Perhaps this is the biggest flaw of taking this philosophy into our research. We do however believe that it was a wise choice as this philosophy has helped us get a deep, arguably even a too deep understanding of connectivity.
Moving on to storytelling, we found a term dubbed rhizomatic narrative which talks about connectivity among stories. ̵We use the rhizomatic narrative by having music and sound in our game that is aligned with the characters and the context of the environment and general setting of the game. This raises the connectivity and atmosphere of everything the music and sound touches and gives more life to the game.̵ ̵Currently our game is quite lacking in audio though and it would be wise for us to create more for the game as it would help further the level of rhizomatic connectivity of the game which is something that we desire.
Another way we were using a rhizomatic narrative is by having multiple stories present for the player to find. Everywhere in the game the player is able to find things which all contain and convey pieces of history and interpretive information. This is also something we could have done differently, or at least the ways and options we have available for the player to gather or view said information.
Another thing we could have done differently with the music for the game would be to only use slavic instruments for the composition of the music as it perhaps would further convey that the game takes place in a slavic area of the world.
